[mwirkk] I can't fault you for your trepedation. But what about Jabba the Hutt? That's the best two-tonne talking slug *I've* ever seen on screen. ;P

In Reply To

I haven't seen Pan's Labyrinth

[mwirkk] You must! Get the deluxe edition so you can see Guillermo's interviews. What I really liked about PL was it's a fairie story, but it is not a Disney-fied version of one -- all the old-time brutality is there.

In Reply To

...somehow, my brain picks out patterns of movements from animatronics and puppets, even when well done, and totally removes me from the film.

[mwirkk] That is sooooo true! Other things can take away the Suspension of Disbelief, though, with eqaully jolting effect, such as fat, fuzzy, little, blue space-elephants playing keyboards in the bar/cantina/lounge/whatever... Oh, wait a minute, that was an animatronic too. :)

In Reply To

Yoda in Ep.I for instance, is much more distracting to me than CGI Yoda in Ep. II and III.

[mwirkk] I liked Yoda in Ep.V. He was a cute little guy, getting into stuff, whacking miscreants with his little cane, using the Force to cheat at games of Pinochle...

In Reply To

Didn't they use both animatronics and CGI for Treebeard? ... A few shots of Treebeard just looked way too mechanical.

[mwirkk] I think that it was the right choice for the closeups with Treebeard's facial details. He had to have a mechanical, crackly, frictiony kind of texture and movement. His skin is made of bark, poor guy. Maybe the EntMaidens (whom are lost) have better complexions -- more like aspen, birch or alder. :)

In Reply To

Compare him with the Balrog and Oliphaunts.

[mwirkk] Now those would have been some big-4$%#&! animatronics! Pretty dangerous too, I'll bet. Especially when they light the Balrog on fire.

In Reply To

Whatever they used for the Balrog, Oliphaunts, etc. is what should be used in The Hobbit, in my opinion.

[mwirkk] Ya, what he said! (whatever=cgi) Don't think it's up to us, though. But I'm not worried, they'll make good decisions. :)

In Reply To

Just think how those techniques have improved in the more than ten years that will have passed between these productions.

[mwirkk] That's going to be one of the most anticipated aspects, me thinks. By us gearheads, anywayz. We'll be sitting there, just staring, and drooling... drooling... droo(oh! Er, sorry!) ... thinking about all the possibilities... things that they could go back and touch-up/fix from the first trilogy. Of course, if the wargs are the same as before, it's probably an all-hope-lost scenario for that ever happening. {Just kidding. A'little. I guess.} It should certainly be much much easier for them to do Gollum this time around. Not only have they done it before, but, as you say, the technology will be so much more advanced. However, if they decide to do a bunch of CGI characters in a long series of scenes (say, for example, most of the dwarves), I hope they think real hard about all options, because I was thoroughly unimpressed with the quality of the character animations in last years Beowulf, with Gerard Butler. ...except for Angelina Jolie, of course. ;) {Sorry, Imma oinker! ;P} -mwirkk :)